


Before the Light Fades Away

by errantknightess



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Books, Dorkiness, Fluff, Late Night Writing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 09:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3564080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errantknightess/pseuds/errantknightess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allen stays up late at night to write his reports and Lavi keeps him company. The result is predictable and not at all productive.<br/>Post-Ark arc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Light Fades Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the49thname](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the49thname/gifts).



> Based on [this](http://flowerman.co.vu/post/105134914889/imagine-lavi-keeping-allen-company-while-hes) headcanon post.  
> Happy birthday!

The paraffin lamp on the table flickered slightly. Allen reached out and turned the knob to steady the flame. Words on the form before him danced and wobbled in his eyes, and he wasn’t sure if it was just the play of shadows or drowsiness taking a hold of him. Unable to focus, he raised his head and looked over the piles of paper towering in front of him. Judging by the continuous drumming coming from the window, it was pouring, but the moonless night and the feeble light filling the library made it impossible to take a good look outside. All he saw in the dark glass pane was the double reflection staring back at him: a white-haired boy with tired eyes and a black-faced figure with a tireless grin. Allen dragged his hands across his face, rubbing away at the sand under his eyelids. He looked up again. The Fourteenth still loomed in the window, same as always for the past week, silent, empty-eyed, motionless.

And suddenly, he moved.

Allen nearly fell off his chair. It took a couple of seconds for his dulled mind to realize what he really saw. It was not the figure that moved, but something in the reflection behind his back; it all clicked into place when he heard the door slamming shut and a familiar voice calling his name.

“Yo, Allen. How’s it going?”

Allen turned around, breaking into a pale smile. Out of the shadow stepped Lavi, balancing his own stack of papers and helping himself with his chin to keep them from swaying. With a loud thud, he set them on the table next to Allen and pulled up a chair.

“Still not finished, huh,” he half-asked, eyeing the mountains of documents surrounding Allen like walls of an impenetrable fortress.

“I can’t look at these forms anymore,” Allen rested his head on the counter, his cheek smushed against the sheet he’s been filling out for the last twenty minutes. “There’s just too many. It’s driving me crazy.”

“I feel you,” Lavi propped himself on his elbow and looked at his neatly organized papers with disgust, absent-mindedly driving his finger along the side of the stack. “The old panda has had me writing records all the damn time ever since I got out of the infirmary. At this rate my hand will fall off before the week is done.”

“I certainly don’t recommend  _that_  feeling,” Allen snorted. For a split second, he thought he saw Lavi’s face tense a little, but that could have just as well been a trick of light — he was seeing everything sideways, anyway.

“So, you came here to hide from Bookman?” He asked quickly to change the subject.

“More or less,” Lavi uncorked his inkwell and turned to Allen with a wide grin. “I figured since we both have a whole lot of stuff to write, I might drop in to keep you company. It’s damn hard to run into you these days, you know?”

“It’s not like I can help it,” Allen mumbled into the table. That wasn’t exactly a lie; with the amount of reports that Link forced him to write, he was pretty much stuck in the library for the better part of the day. However, he didn’t want to admit that as much as he was sick of having the inspector for his sole companion, for most of time he didn’t particularly feel like seeing anyone, either.

“Yeah, I guess…” Lavi perked up his head and looked around, peering into the dimly lit room. “Where is that watchdog of yours, anyway?”

“Link? Taking a nap over there,” Allen turned to the reading nook in the far corner of the room. From one of the sofas rose a quiet snoring, quickly dissolving in the sounds of rain.

“Whaaat?” Lavi gave Allen an incredulous look. “And you hadn’t run for it yet? What are you still sitting here for?”

“What’s the use? I’d just have to fill these in tomorrow,” Allen pointed at the mountain of paper with a shrug. “I’m just glad to have him out of my hair for a while.”

“You’ve got a point here,” Lavi nodded and reached for his quill. “All right then, let’s get to work. The sooner we’re done with it, the better for us.”

“Right,” Allen sat up in his chair and stretched, feeling all his muscles scream. “Nudge me or something if you see me dozing off, all right? I fell asleep twice on those papers and shoved the whole pile to the floor. I don’t want to pick it all up again.”

“Sure thing,” Lavi smiled. Then his eye narrowed and he leaned forward to take a closer look.

“Oi, Allen, you’ve got something on your face.”

“What?” Allen rubbed his cheek and frowned at the black smudges left on his fingers. He looked down at his nearly-finished form and scowled as he saw the smeared ink where he had lay his head.

“Great, now I’ll have to rewrite it,” he groaned, burying his face in his hand.

“Don’t worry,” Lavi gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder. “You’ve got so many of these, I’m sure Two-Spot wouldn’t notice if there’s one or two missing.”

“Let’s hope so,” Allen sighed, setting the wasted paper aside and reaching for another one from the never-ending pile. Lavi turned to his own documents as well. They set down to work in silence filled with rustling of shuffled papers, squeaking of quills and steady tapping of rain on the window.

Allen felt surprisingly awake now. He was still tired and stiff and aching all over, but his head wasn’t quite as heavy anymore and his eyelids stopped closing of their own accord. Talking to Lavi after such a long time spent in quiet helped to liven up his brain. Most of all, though, he was glad to finally have someone treating him normally for once. He couldn’t help but notice the charged atmosphere trailing him wherever he would go for the past week — and quite obviously it didn’t have anything to do with the Order’s inspector at his heels. It felt as if the Fourteenth was constantly hovering over his shoulder, casting a shadow on every chat and every chance encounter. It was in the small things — uneasy glances, faltering smiles, worried fumbling. For the last couple of days, Allen has seen the entire display of those blink-and-miss-it gestures that plainly indicated what was going through everyone’s mind.  _You’re here today, but who will be here tomorrow?_

They were all holding their breath, waiting for him to change – but for now, it was them who had changed.

Except for Lavi. He didn’t change one bit. Whatever were his thoughts on the recent revelation, he kept them to himself and, as usually, made sure not to let them show. He still acted the same around him, and deep down Allen was grateful for that. It felt good to sit like that in the faint light and wordless understanding, comforted by his friend’s silent presence.

… Well, his  _presence_ , at any rate.

As Allen soon found out, for someone who should be used to sitting and reading and writing for prolonged periods of time, Lavi was absolutely hopeless at focusing his attention. Whether it was because of the late hour or the monotony of the task, or simply because of his natural energy bursting and boiling and getting the better of him, it was seemingly beyond him to hold still for more than ten minutes.

“Could you stop it?” Allen asked after a while when the agitated drumming of Lavi’s fingers on the counter started to reverberate under his skull.

“Oh?” Lavi looked down at his hand as if he saw it for the first time in his life. “Sorry. Didn’t notice I was doing that.”

He tapped at the table a couple more times, looking around for something else to occupy his fingers. His eye fell on the smeared form Allen had put aside. Lavi shuffled it closer and folded, pressing the edge firmly with his nail. He folded and unfolded the paper, creasing it, tucking the corners in and pulling them out until he was holding a small, ink-stained crane. Allen caught himself staring at the swift movements of Lavi’s hands, completely forgetting about his work.

“How are you doing this?”

“It’s simple,” Lavi put the crane on the table and rocked it to and fro. “I’ll show you.”

He took a sheet from Allen’s pile and folded it again.

“See, you bring this corner here, and then spread it and fold the other way around… And then once more like this…” He slowly repeated the steps so that Allen could see. He set the new crane next to the first one and hesitated.

“Whoops. I guess you’re gonna need that paper?”

“I’m sure Link won’t notice if there’s one or two missing,” Allen smiled, gently poking the cranes with his finger.

They turned back to work and managed to go for a good while, writing away in a dull, dazed concentration. Allen wasn’t quite sure if he was really putting words on the paper or just dreaming it, and he definitely couldn’t judge if whatever he was supposedly writing made any sense at all. Beside him, Lavi gave up completely and was now fidgeting with his quill, blowing at the barbs, brushing the nib against the side of his stack of papers and making stupid little noises all the time. Allen registered it all with a mixture of amusement and tired irritation, until he felt the fluffy tip invading his ear.

“Looks like someone is ticklish,” Lavi teased, skimming the feather over Allen’s earlobe and down his neck. Allen wriggled and reached out his own quill.

“What about you?” He passed the quill under Lavi’s nose, earning a massive sneeze and more vehement tickling in retaliation.

“All right, enough,” Allen shrunk under the attack as Lavi started to swat the feather all over his face. “Seriously, Lavi, stop that! You’re getting ink on me!”

“You stop it first!”

“I already stopped! Come on! You’ll poke out my good eye!”

“Fine, all right,” Lavi pouted and took away the quill. “Spoilsport.”

He folded his arms and leaned back on his chair, tipping it on its rear legs. Allen watched him from the corner of his eye, unconsciously counting down to the inevitable fall. He got to forty three and the chair swayed, but before it fell over, Lavi brought it back down, legs slamming against the floor. In a second, he launched it again, holding at the edge of the table for support. He rocked like that a couple of times, holding his balance and landing with a thud whenever he lost it. Finally, he pulled his knees up and sat cross-legged, propping himself on the elbow.

“That looks uncomfortable,” Allen observed.

“It’s kinda refreshing, actually,” Lavi stretched his arms up with a pleased murmur in his voice. “You should try it.”

“What—like this?” Allen shifted to curl up his legs and hissed as pain pierced him through the small of his back.

“Something wrong?” Lavi leaned towards him, frowning with concern.

“My back is killing me.”

“No wonder, if you’ve been slouching like that for so many hours,” Lavi untangled his legs and stepped behind Allen’s chair. “Sit properly.”

He put his hands on Allen’s shoulders and gently pulled them back, bringing the shoulder blades together. Allen heard something click, but didn’t protest as Lavi started to rub the nape of his neck with his thumbs. A warm wave flowed over his aching muscles and sent a pleasant jolt down his spine.

“Better?”

“Yeah,” Allen muttered, watching their reflection in the dark window. The shadow of the Fourteenth overlapped with Lavi, somehow making it look even more disturbing than usually. Allen shuddered, suddenly feeling the touch of cold fingers on his jaw.

“Chin up,” Lavi ordered, slightly pushing his head with one hand, the other reaching for a stray book forgotten at the edge of the paper-strewn table. He put it on Allen’s head and plopped back on his chair.

“Now, try to keep it up. If you sit straight like this, I guarantee you won’t get back pains anymore.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to write anything in this position?” Allen slowly leaned his head to look at the paper. The book swayed and plunged down, hitting the table with a bang and narrowly missing the inkwell.

“Seriously, Allen, you can’t even balance a book on your head?” Lavi picked up the fallen volume and used it to playfully tap Allen on the forehead.

“Of course I can! Just not when I’m trying to write!”

“Oh yeah? So stop writing and show me.”

Allen looked up, meeting Lavi’s glinting eye and his cheeky, lopsided smile. He rubbed his sore wrist. He really needed a break, and he knew a chance when he saw one.

“Fine,” Allen stood up, snatching the book from Lavi’s hand. He put it on top of his head, slowly took a couple of steps on stiffened legs, turned around and walked back to his chair, the book still intact. Lavi watched him with an unreadable grin all the time.

“Happy now?” Allen tipped the book like a performer tipping his hat after a show. Lavi stood up and applauded mockingly.

“All right, so you  _can_  do it after all,” he admitted, striding over to the nearest bookcase. “But I bet you can’t do it with more than one,” he added, taking down an armful of random books from the shelf and turning back to Allen, a challenge twinkling in his eye.

The look on Allen’s face should have made him think twice.

“Bring it.”

Allen took the thick tome that Lavi passed him and placed in on top of the book he was balancing earlier. Without falter, as if the added weight was nothing to him, he walked the same path as before and thrust both books into Lavi’s hands.

“Now you try it.”

“All right,” with a smug smile, Lavi put the books on his head. “Just watch me.”

He tottered a little, trying to find his centre of gravity, and staggered ahead, the books slipping out of balance some three steps in. Lavi caught them before they slid off his head entirely and put them back in place without stopping.

“Hands off, Lavi,” Allen called after him, his voice ringing with childishly ruthless amusement. “No cheating!”

“Look who’s talking,” Lavi snapped, making a wobbly U-turn and rushing back to make it before the books would lose stability again. Finally, he came to a halt in front of Allen, letting the volumes fall freely on either side of his head. They both cringed as the leather-bound covers slammed against the floor.

“Amateur,” Allen chuckled, playfully elbowing Lavi in the ribs. He picked up another batch of books ( _Encyclopaedia Medica_ , vols. a-d) and put them on with a dramatical gesture.

“Watch and learn.”

Arms outstretched, with his upper body leaning forward ever so slightly, Allen side-stepped away from the table and cast a quick glance up to make sure Lavi was watching. Then, slowly, he raised one leg and shifted his weight— forward— backwards— turning around— circling with broad, sweeping moves in an erratic dance, lightly, effortlessly, never losing his balance. The books sat firmly on top of his head as if they were glued together. His eyes fixed ahead, Allen glided across the open space between the table and the door and stopped dead in the middle, straight and steady as a statue.

“Show-off,” Lavi snorted as Allen took a deep bow, catching the falling books mid-air.

“Well, I used to work in a circus, after all,” Allen couldn’t help but smile at the poorly concealed impression on his friend’s face. “Are you still up for the challenge?”

“Sure am,” Lavi’s eye narrowed dangerously. “But this time let’s get serious. No fancy prancing. Just you and me and this stack of literature. Let’s see who can take on more!”

“Sounds good,” Allen nodded, crossing the distance back to the table. They faced each other with comically serious expressions, a heap of books on the counter between them. Allen scooped up as many as he could lift and carefully set them on his head, holding them in place until Lavi did the same. Straining under the weight, they took their positions— knees bent, feet far apart.

“Ready?” Lavi asked through gritted teeth, as if moving his jaw would upset the teetering tower.

“Yeah,” Allen grunted back and they both put their hands down, immediately jolting to catch balance as the stacks started to sway without the support. They both wobbled in their spots for a while, fully focused on keeping the balance. Lavi sticked out his tongue a little, his eye turned up as if he was trying to watch his load through his skull. He was doing far better standing in place than when he had to walk.

“How many have you got?” Allen slowly raised his eyes to count the books on Lavi’s head, but they stood too close to each other to take in the full height of the stack. In answer, Lavi raised his eyebrow thoughtfully in a surprisingly readable facial equivalent of a shrug.

“Dunno… Ten? Eleven, maybe. You?”

“No idea. I just took as many as possible.”

“That’s some competition,” Lavi let out a stifled laugh, trying hard not to shake too much. Allen snickered as well. It was contagious. Before they knew it, they were both choking with laughter, and the more they tried to hold still, the worse it got. Allen felt the weight on his head slip to the side; he reached up to steady the pile, only to see the books on Lavi’s head careen towards him. Lavi lurched forward on reflex in a desperate attempt, effectively putting an end to the stack — which was certainly higher than eleven volumes, as Allen realized in the blink of an eye before he got buried under them. He crashed to the floor, hitting his head hard and letting out a hoarse, undignified screech as Lavi landed on top of him, punching him in the stomach with his elbow. Heavy tomes rained down on both of them with thundering thuds, generously dishing out bruises with stiff covers and pointy corners.

“Ow. That hurt,” Lavi groaned cheerfully into Allen’s chest. “Hey Allen, you alive down there?”

“Yes… Get off me!” Allen wheezed, shoving the books away from his face and scrambling to sit up. Lavi rolled aside, straightened his headband and looked around with an insane grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Oh yeah, very funny,” Allen grumbled, rubbing the back of his head, but even so, he couldn’t keep the amused edge out of his voice. They looked at each other and burst into laughter again, louder and more hysterical now that they didn’t need to restrain it. They howled and quivered and gasped for air, grabbing at each other for support and snorting into each other’s shoulders.

“Why… Why are we laughing?” Allen managed, wiping the tears from his eyes before amusement seized his throat again.

“Cause it was fun,” Lavi’s voice was broken and husky, and he coughed spasmodically to clear it, only to erupt with giggling once more.

Allen nodded, clutching at his stomach and trying to catch his breath. He kicked off some of the books that still covered his legs. They were  _everywhere_. Quite a lot tumbled under the table, and a few made it even as far as to the sofa in the far corner where…

“Walker! What on earth is going on?”

“Damn, I forgot he was here,” Allen spat out weakly, his eyes darting to the approaching inspector. Link stepped out from the dark, yawning and combing at his bedhead without much result.

“What are you doing…?” He looked down at them with foggy eyes. “And what are  _you_  doing here?” He added, somewhat focusing on Lavi.

The two exorcists exchanged nonplussed looks and opened their mouths in the same instant, but before they could say anything, Link hushed them with a raised hand.

“Wait, I don’t think I  _really_  want to know,” he sighed, rubbing his temples. “Just get back to work and stop making all this racket, please.” He yawned again and shuffled back to his sofa. Allen followed him with his eyes until a quiet snort behind his back caught his attention. He turned around. Lavi was watching him with his eye half-closed, hints of a new laughing fit flickering around his lips.

“Don’t start again,” Allen pressed his hand over Lavi’s mouth. “Come on, let’s clean this mess and finish our work, shall we?”

Lavi nodded under his hand and Allen released him, shooting a cautionary glance when he heard a sharp intake of air. Lavi gurgled, letting the raising laughter die out and dissolve in his stomach. They picked up the scattered books, put them away and sat back at the table. Peering into his forms in the dying light, Allen couldn’t help but smile to himself, and he knew without rising his head that a couple of inches to his right, Lavi was smiling too. They worked all through the night, the stacks of papers in front of them dwindling just like the flame of the lamp; Allen hardly realized when it went out completely, as by that time it had already got replaced by the first rays of the pale morning sun.

“Man, I’m exhausted,” Lavi sighed, stretching in his chair and moving his shoulders up and down like a distraught pigeon. “And starving. Wanna go grab some breakfast?”

Allen’s rumbling stomach answered the question for him. They stood up, wobbling into each other on stiff, aching legs, and headed out. As they reached the door, Allen hesitated.

“I probably shouldn’t disappear on this guy,” he said, pointing in the general direction of Link, “or he’ll bring the holy inquisition down on my head. And everyone else’s.”

“If you say so,” Lavi shrugged, following Allen’s finger to the sleeping inspector. “So what, are you gonna wake him up?”

“Maybe I’ll just wait here a little longer,” Allen’s eyes bounced indecisively between Link and the door. He didn’t want to go out. He was tired and twitchy and not up to stepping into the heavy air of suspicion and concern that surrounded him lately. “You go on ahead. I’ll see you later.”

“Damn sure you will,” Lavi reached out and ruffled his hair with a wide grin. “We’re gonna do the same thing tomorrow, all right?”

“All right,” Allen’s face lit up a little. “But I’m not putting any more books on my head.” He rubbed the back of his skull, remembering the encounter with the floor.

“You’re just saying that because you lost,” Lavi’s grin grew even wider.

“ _You knocked me down_!”

“But you fell first, and that’s what counts,” with his hand still on Allen’s head, Lavi pulled him closer and leaned in to press a warm kiss on his cheek. “Take care. And don’t let your watchdog keep you on a leash.” He gave Allen one last smile and left the library, the door closing silently behind him.

Allen stared at the door for a moment, feeling his knees weaken a bit in a way that had very little to do with the whole night’s worth of sitting still. But that, he decided with a hearty yawn, will be a problem for another day.


End file.
